The perfect shot

The golfing hotspots of Augusta National in Georgia or St Andrews in Scotland might sound like the perfect office views for a golf nut, but they lose their lustre when deadlines are screaming and the pressure to capture that crucial shot mounts by the second.

Little wonder then that UK photographer David Cannon and his German short-haired pointer Mashie had the time of their lives when they spent four weeks visiting Ireland’s iconic courses in a camper van for a special photographic project.

But nothing excites him like a tip to Ireland and the chance to photograph an Irish sky.

“There is something about the skies. They are as much part of the pictures as the landscapes,” says David, who travelled the length and breadth of the country from Waterville and Sligo to Portrush and Rosapenna to capture the stunning beauty of Ireland's golf courses.

“I had driven overnight to get to Rosapenna, right up on the north west tip of Donegal. I knew the weather was changing but there was just the chance that I might still catch some nice weather. And I literally had two bursts of sunshine for, like a minute, and got two angles on the 17th green as the sun was rising.

Inspiring images

“I am trying all the time to get the image that makes people want to go and play those golf courses."

With no hotel check in times to worry about, David and Mashie came and went as they pleased.

“It was utterly brilliant," David recalls. "I have never seen better beaches in my life. That west coast is just astonishing.

“Waterville was absolutely amazing but Tralee is totally underrated. And Rosapenna! How wild is that up there? Trump International (Doonbeg) is just an oasis. It hasn’t got the mountain views of some of the others, but Doughmore Bay is just amazing.

“I got soaked three times in three hours at Trump International (Doonbeg), and it was the same for Lahinch. The two of those were really wild. But that's the beauty of Ireland. You can be thinking it's going to rain all day and bingo, you get a little bit of gold. You've got to expect the unexpected and just let Ireland take you along for the ride.”

“County Louth was like that. It was raining all day and I was about to turn back and move on and then suddenly the sun came out for 20 minutes and it was beautiful. People don’t realise that the skies in Ireland are the best skies anywhere in the world. It doesn’t have to be all blue to be beautiful.”

They used to say that Ireland is a small country until you try to drive around it, but that’s no longer the case.

“The roads are so good now,” Dave says. “There are so many remote spots but it is so much easier to get around than it used to be. I’ve played over 700 courses around the world now and covered more than a thousand tournaments, but there’s something special about Ireland. I can’t wait to come back.”

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